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– Russia tests us every day. From Greenland to the Balkans, says four-star German general Jörg Vollmer in an exclusive interview with DN.
He recently visited Sweden and since April this year has been at the head of the NATO Allied Joint Forces Command at Brunssum in the Netherlands.
Responsibility command area It is widely used: from Greenland to Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It extends further south to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, and also includes NATO countries in northwestern Europe.
To the east, the command borders Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. See how Russian President Vladimir Putin is practicing further west in the Arctic, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic. Putin actively supports Alexander Lukashenko in troubled Belarus, has annexed the Crimean peninsula from the Black Sea and is waging a low-intensity war in Ukraine.
His attempts to divide the alliances of the western states continue.
– Russia is trying to separate us. Now we have had a likely cyber attack on the Norwegian parliament, we had a similar one in Germany a few years ago, we had the big cyber attack on Estonia before and we have the nerve gas attack in the UK, says Jörg Vollmer.
– His attempts to divide the alliances of the western states are constantly underway to gain influence and increase his area of interest. Every day something happens, and we must be prepared for it, he says.
Jörgen Vollmer, right, wants to practice more with Sweden, here with his Swedish host, the chief of operations for the Swedish Armed Forces, Michael Claesson.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
This is a completely different shade from NATO than when I visited the command in Brunssum in the fall of 2013 as a reporter. After the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1991, NATO had disarmed its collective defense.
The alliance had been expanded with members of the old Warsaw Pact (1999 and 2004), but there were no threats against NATO in Europe, it was said. NATO did not want to single out Russia as a potential enemy. To still have someone to start practicing against, the enemies invented themselves “borrowing” Swedish and Finnish territory with fictitious states that attacked NATO. But these scenarios “had nothing to do with Russia,” was the message then.
Four months later, in March 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and began fighting in Ukraine.
Enemy is too strong a word, given our common history. Russia is an opponent.
– 2014 was the starting point. We were then ordered to prepare plans for how we will defend our area of responsibility. I can assure you that there is now a common opinion on how it should go, says Jörg Vollmer
How do you see Russia today, friend or foe?
– Enemy is too strong a word, given our common history. Russia is an opponent. They have their own political system, their idea, their ideas and they don’t fit in with our system. That is why we must be prepared, to show clearly that there is a line that Russia must not cross. It goes through the Baltic states and Poland; yes, all the way, including our partner countries, responds Jörg Vollmer.
The partner countries to which it refers are Sweden and Finland, which as the only non-NATO countries in Europe since 2014 are very close to the alliance and can participate in certain meetings.
NATO General Jörgen Vollmer, wearing a green beret, leaves the headquarters of the Swedish Armed Forces, TV about him, Swedish director of operations Michael Claesson.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
General Vollmer’s Assignment is preparing the defense of NATO in the northeast. Today, the alliance has multinational battle groups from 22 NATO countries, from the United States to Montenegro, stationed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The battle groups are small, from 1,100 to 1,500 people each, but they must signal solidarity in times of crisis and war according to the motto “one for all, all for one”.
If a NATO country is threatened, Article 4 of the NATO Treaty can be activated. In the event of an attack, collective defense is activated in accordance with Article 5, NATO Defense Guarantee.
– If the member states of the North Atlantic Council decide that Article 4 or 5 of the NATO Treaty will apply, then we are in command. And that is the reason why I am here in Sweden. We need to talk to each other and create a common understanding, explains Jörg Vollmer.
Sweden has also changed your security policy. During the Cold War policy of neutrality, military cooperation with NATO countries was officially taboo. It happened anyway, informally in hidden contacts. Today, collaboration takes place in an open and orderly manner. General Vollmer emphasizes that Sweden is important, with the longest coastline of the Baltic Sea and control of the Sound.
His host in Sweden was the Swedish Armed Forces Chief of Operations Michael Claesson, but he also met with ÖB Micael Bydén and Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist (s). They discussed the security policy situation in the Baltic Sea and Arctic region.
Sweden has very close ties with NATO, during the visit the NATO flag was raised in front of the headquarters of the Armed Forces.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
An hour after the meeting between Vollmer and Hultqvist, the government decided on the defense bill for the years 2021–25. It states that Sweden must be able to “give and receive military support”. Therefore, Sweden should “coordinate operational planning with Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, and NATO.” In plain text: plan with others for crisis and war.
– Now that we have the same opinion on the Russian threat to which we are exposed on a daily basis, it is important to intensify our cooperation whenever possible. “We have respect for Sweden and ask for Swedish support for our common defense and deterrence on NATO’s northeast flank,” says General Vollmer.
Do you want more exercises in Sweden?
– I am looking forward to intensifying our cooperation and exercises. These are strong signs that we are united, responds Jörg Vollmer.
– If Sweden asks for help, I’m pretty sure they will give it, says Jörgen Vollmer.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Highlight two exercises as examples. One is the annual Baltops naval exercise, where Sweden and 18 other countries participated this year in protecting the Baltic Sea area. The other is Trident Juncture, where 29 NATO countries, as well as Sweden and Finland, brought together 51,000 soldiers in 2018 to defend Norway.
– We also need to improve our ability to collaborate. First in terms of our thinking, second technically: how do we communicate? Do we have the right system? We have to evaluate that and the exercises help a lot, says General Vollmer who explains:
– We, from the military side, must do everything possible to prepare for the worst. The better we do already in peacetime, the more solid advice we can give our decision makers and say, “Okay, if you ask us to do this, we are ready to do it.”
Since 2016 it is the goal so that the Swedish military “individually and together with others, inside and outside the country, defend Sweden and promote our security”. That same year, the Riksdag approved a host country agreement with NATO to receive troops.
If such a situation arises, is it possible to defend Sweden together with NATO?
– If Sweden asks for help, I’m pretty sure it will. And the more we establish processes, procedures, commitments and understanding in peacetime, the more capacity we will have to intervene immediately and, if the political decision is made, to do so, responds Jörg Vollmer.
